Rats eat the lunch, snakes eat the rats - and everyone else is fed up at Pinetown courts

02 July 2019 - 07:01

By TANIA BROUGHTON

Image: Jackie Clausen Staff at the Pinetown courthouse, from cleaners to magistrates, say they're going on strike on Tuesday because of the 'putrid' conditions there, which include a rat and snake infestation.

Staff at Pinetown Magistrate’s Court say they will demonstrate on Tuesday over the "disgusting" conditions there, including a rat infestation which has attracted snakes to the building.

"I saw a snake chasing a rat," one staff member, who is not allowed to speak to the press, told SowetanLIVE's sister publictaion TimesLIVE.

On top of that toilets don’t work and the stench of sewerage is ever present, sources said.

Public Servants' Association KZN manager Claude Naicker confirmed that the working conditions at the court were dire.

"The entire court building is in a dire state of disrepair. Our 60 members at the court, including magistrates, prosecutors, interpreters and cleaners, will take part in the demonstration. If their demands are not met, then they will decide on what steps to take next," he said.

"We have had reports that documents and people's lunches were being gnawed at.

"I know of one instance where a dead rat was discovered in a prosecutor's office."

Attorney Jacques Botha, who frequents the building, said: "It is appalling and abysmal".

"It is generally filthy. Fungal spores are spewing out of air conditioners. The toilets are disgusting. There are missing toilet seats and cistern lids. Vandalised hand driers. Soap dispensers are missing.

"Carpets are rotting from water damage. There is a pervading stench which one magistrate told me is a design flaw because they didn’t properly ventilate the sewage system so the smell permeates some of the courts."